Brief history of the battle between Brexit protesters and broadcasters

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A change in the law is putting an end to “revenge evictions” – an ordeal experienced by nearly half of renters who make a formal complaint about their landlord, according to Citizens Advice.

Being celebrated as a victory for housing campaigners, the end of section 21 was a big discussion point this week and attracted even more attention after a live TV interview with one tenant went awry.

Kirsty Archer, a young activist who was issued an eviction notice after complaining to her landlord about problems with the property, was invited on to Sky News to talk about her experience.

The resulting interview, which circulated online, amassing thousands of comments and shares, showed a visibly uncomfortable Archer being grilled by Sky News presenter Jayne Secker – who also happens to be a private landlord.

Asked what she would do after being evicted, Archer began to respond: “On average, it costs about £2,000 to-”

“That’s not the landlord’s fault, though, is it?” interrupted Secker, who then complained that tenants do not know how to change a lightbulb or turn on the boiler and asked Archer whether she “is equipped with all the skills necessary to rent”.

Though clearly flummoxed by the direction the interview was taking, Archer responded calmly: “That’s a bit patronising, really.”

‘Aggressive’ and ‘unprofessional’

A lot of people on social media agreed, and the next day Secker issued an apology for getting the “tone and content” of the interview wrong.

On Wednesday, Sky News editor-at-large Adam Boulton was lambasted as “aggressive”, “unprofessional” and “bullying” for his interview of a climate-change protester.

Boulton told Robin Boardman-Pattison, of climate-change group Extinction Rebellion, that he sounded “like a right-wing fascist” and that protesters are “a bunch of incompetent, middle-class, self-indulgent people who want to tell us how to live our lives”.

“One of the simplest ways of achieving [your aim] is to ignore the question you are asked and answer with your key message.”

The clip, which again attracted thousands of comments and shares, ended with Boardman-Pattison getting out of his seat and walking off set.

Yet this time reactions were divided, with some viewers praising Boulton for his frankness and suggesting that Boardman-Pattison wasn’t clear in the message he was trying to get across.

“It’s one thing to ask tricky questions or challenge a spokesperson, but it’s another to attack, patronise or insult them, which definitely occurred in both of these instances,” says Jess Gross, media trainer and director of PR agency Hotwire.

“We are definitely seeing more of this, as fewer and fewer interviews are mapped out days in advance, with spokespeople given appropriate direction on a particular segment,” she adds.

Sky News Jayne Secker interviews Kirsty Archer (Photo: Screen still)

‘Debate is changing’

However, Peter Barrett, media trainer for PR agency Infinite Global, says the onus is on the interviewee to prepare for anything.

“The nature of public debate is changing. We are seeing grass-roots organisations gaining national broadcast prominence on a variety of issues: Brexit, diversity issues, climate change, housing. Such individuals and groups are invariably ill prepared for the harsh reality of broadcast interviews,” he says.

Part of the problem, it seems, is that young people in particular are often used to discussing points online and rarely have face-to-face discussions with people on the opposite side of a debate.

“Under bright studio lights and against the finger-jabbing of experienced broadcasters, it is extremely difficult to remain calm and master your arguments,” points out Barrett.

Media training, normally carried out by former journalists, can help in understanding the formula of live interviews. Virtually every chief executive, politician and spokesperson has had some form of such training, enabling them to get their message across.

Marverine Duffy, a former Sky News anchor and director of journalism courses at Birmingham City University, says it is important that anyone invited on live TV “does their research on the news organisation they are going to be questioned by, and the programme on which they are going to appear.”

‘Ignore the question’

Mike Best, broadcast journalism lecturer at Leeds Trinity University and a former director of broadcasting at ITV Yorkshire, agrees, adding: “One of the simplest ways of achieving [your aim] is to ignore the question you are asked and answer with your key message.”

It is not only inexperienced interviewees who suffer from presenters overstepping the mark. Journalist Nichi Hodgson was subjected to derision and aggressive questioning by TalkRadio’s James Whale last year while recalling being sexual assaulted. Even with a decade’s experience and countless live interviews about sex and relationships, she was “completely unprepared” for the tone of the interview, and left “angry and upset”.

She says it wasn’t until the next day, when Whale was roundly criticised on social media, that the radio station appeared to notice that something had gone wrong.

Hodgson suggests that broadcast journalists need to learn to switch between grilling professional politicians and spokespeople, and speaking to people who are not as well trained or who are sharing their personal experience.

“Your skill as a presenter is to take the conversation somewhere else or end the interview,” she explains.

Most people would agree that it is preferable for broadcasters to give interviewees too tough an interrogation than an easy ride but, with many young people now having social media followings bigger than news channels’ viewerships, it might not be long before producers are unable to find anyone willing to put themselves through a grilling.

Brief history of the battle between Brexit protesters and broadcasters

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